No, the title is not me calling myself pretty. Being “pretty” in debate isn't about your outward appearance, it’s a vibe, feeling, and state of being that is intrinsic to fem debaters. Feminine (fem) people in our community are often set aside, issues we face are glazed over, and success sometimes feels impossible within the echo-chamber of prep groups, discord servers, and more. This article is not a call-out or directed at any one person; moreso, it is a collection of experiences of feminine people in my life and the ways the debate community has failed them.

Harassment

Debate is a communication event. As such, chit chatting, post rounding, and becoming besties with your opponent are all common at tournaments (at least for me lolz). This aspect of debate is what drew me into the event and kept me here. Making new friends, spending late nights with strangers in a random high school, and creating inside jokes were the best parts of getting to compete for me. However, because of interactions I’ve had, today I enjoy my time with my coach and my novices. Below are a list of experiences I’ve had which have changed the way I interact with others in the debate community:

1. My freshman year in debate, while competing at my first TOC bid distributing tournament, one of my male judges spent the majority of the round staring at my chest and would repeatedly glance at it while I was delivering my speeches. 
2. While walking back from a round with an opponent, the male debater made a comment on how much my chest moved when I walked.
3. A former competitor and now judge whom I had believed to be my friend attributed a nickname to me based on the size of my chest and told several of his friends in the community about it. 
4. As I waited for my round to start at NSDA Nationals this past June, a male debater came up and asked for my phone number–-which I gave willingly. However, after we met to watch finals (following the performance of an interp piece on police brutality) he asked if I would like to leave and go “makeout and do stuff” with him at his hotel, which was conveniently only a 7 minute walk. 

These instances have colored the way I interact with masculine presenting debaters. I no longer float around at tournaments talking to people (well less lolz); I keep interactions with opponents short, I do not wear the same outfits I did, and I no longer put on sparkly or extravagant makeup. While these modifications work for me, they don’t address the larger problem fem debaters face. Masc debaters (often) do not deal with pushback or condemnation for their conduct inside or outside of rounds. In some of the best cases, harassment is acknowledged and then brushed under the rug by the predominantly male debate community. 

One of the best examples of a productive counter-measure was a semi-recent Facebook post in the LD group (which has since been taken down) which listed the problematic things a masc-debater had done. Steps like this one put issues down in writing; it forces the community to read and look at what is occuring, it forces enablers of harassment to take a stance. 

People make connections in debate for a multitude of reasons: prep, practice rounds, their vibe, or makeup tips. No matter the reason for these relationships, the majority of friendships occur with little mind to the interactions masc debaters have with women. Individuals often attempt to (and successfully) avoid taking accountability for hanging out with problematic debaters by asserting aggressors are “different people” outside of debate. Harassment isn't an “in round” issue or something you can forget about outside of a tournament. It is a practice that is affirmed by your friendships, your coaches, your prep groups.

Wins Being Discredited

I, just like many other fem debaters, have 100% joked about only winning a round because I was dressed a certain way or because I looked at the judge and smiled. Hopefully, this has not actually been the reason I’ve won rounds––but masc debaters are often quick to assume the length of my dress or hem of shirt had a role in the decision.

My sophomore year I beat a decent, senior, masc-debater at a local tournament. Our judge was a nice older man who voted on presumption because he “felt [I] had a much more difficult position to defend and still managed to be equal to the [masc opponent].” Post-round, my opponent made jokes about how the judge voted for me because he saw up my dress. Fifteen- year-old Alex had no idea how to react to an 18 year-old suggesting an even older man was interested in her, so I laughed it off. Nothing was funny, but if I didn’t laugh, I would’ve been deeply unsettled. Comments like this are made constantly. The wins of women and fem-presenting people are rarely attributed (solely) to our ability to debate. And attitudes like these have real effects on fem debaters in our community. 

In a study conducted by a senior political writer from U.S. News and World Reports, Yvan Cohen found that more than one third of women believe physical appearance is what society values–– ranking looks above intelligence, personality, and profession. Promoting sentiments that women win rounds, get bids, or achieve things solely based on a man's ability to gain satisfaction from our in-round appearance solidifies these feelings. It represents the misogyny that masc debaters hide and is reflected in the community as well as the real ideas debate produces. I have heard many adults remark on the revolutionary potential of debate and its ability to change the ideas of the world around us; change starts within.

It is impossible for young women to feel like their contributions to conversations matter if we disvalue them in our community. It is impossible for the good of debate to manifest if misogyny rears its head at fem debater’s ideas. And it is impossible for us to claim we are a productive community capable of promoting good while permitting misogynistic rhetoric to spread. 

Judge Psychology/In Round Safety

Whether you're pretty or not, the 2AR judge psychology advantage goes crazy. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am an LDer. With an event less focused on presentation and style, LDers tend to focus on the flow. In spite of our amazing line-by-line, efficiency at local tournaments isn't enough to get ahead when you have an 8th grade English teacher as your judge. This has led to a pseudo-scientific theory about how to win a round: perceptual dominance. The idea that you can be getting absolutely demolished on the flow, but as long as you're confident, the round is yours. Such a need for confidence often results in LDers being especially aggressive in round; I am guilty of this to the FULLEST extent. The key difference between fem debater’s aggression and masc debater’s aggression is the way they are labeled. My teammates and myself have been characterized as “emotional,” “too sassy,” and “dramatic” by judges, opponents, and even our own coach. And this is even worse for fem debaters of color. While this article alone isn’t going to suddenly stop the gender stereotypes of women, I hope it may at least inspire some judges to re-evaluate the way they think about women being aggressive. 

Another manifestation of internalized misogyny in round includes laughing at fem debaters in the middle of speeches. My teammates and my own family in debate have been laughed at while going for certain serious arguments. One of the schools primarily responsible for the misogyny on my local circuit is an all male Christian preparatory school. While I LOVE their LDers, their PF teams have continuously perpetuated negative spaces for fem debaters-, including recording rounds without consent. One of my PF teammates recounted her experience, explaining how she was uncomfortable in a round against this school because a “group of probably 12 male spectators'' were in the room, “giggling at [them] during CX.” This type of disrespect is not uncommon for this school's numerous PF teams. My teammates later found out the boys had filmed their speeches and sent it to a group chat making fun of one of the partners for doing less than the other in that round. When the PFer they made fun of went to their coach about the issue, the boys “hounded” her and vehemently denied it, despite having shown the video to one of the partners. 

“They just assumed we were stupid enough to go along with what they were saying and that we wouldn’t fight against what they said.”

No action was ever taken to address the inappropriate conduct of this school's debaters, and it was actively denied because the students deleted the videos when the fem debaters spoke up. This conduct is not new to debate, and the assumption that fem debaters won’t speak up is what enables so many in and out of round abuses to occur. Moreover, this experience touches on a broader issue of coach/sponsor enablement that exists; the all male preparatory school’s (hereinafter School X) sponsor did nothing to attempt to make peace with my teammates or reprimand his students- and later, an School X sponsor actively disregarded fem-debaters boundaries.

One of my school’s freshman, all female, PF teams had made it to elims at a random local, and had asked School X (an extremely funded, resourced, and experienced school) not to spectate one of their first out rounds ever, given the negative experiences reported. The debaters from School X complained to their grown, adult, male debate sponsor who proceeded to yell at my freshman PF team and pull the “it’s TFA rules” card out with Tabroom. These spectators had also made fun of my team’s debating skills and told them they were bad. The sponsor abused their position to enforce what masc debaters wanted at the expense of young feminine debaters’ safety. I had never seen someone necessitate spectators in the room, but the male tournament host allowed it. Instances like this one represent two broader issues:

First, the way boundaries, concerns, and feelings fem people express are continuously disregarded. Fem debaters have come out about predatory behaviors of masc debaters, coaches, and judges––yet our community doesn’t take them seriously. We are accused of attempting to get a quick win, avoid difficult debates, etc. We again, again, and again express our feelings, thoughts, or experiences and get trampled on by masc debaters in this community. Our boundaries and safety in round and at tournaments aren’t fully considered, and are sometimes actively lobbied against. It’s time it becomes more than a (bold) Facebook post. No matter your circuit, experience level, event, what camps or prep groups you’re a part of- it is our responsibility to listen to fem debaters. 

The second issue these interactions highlight is masc entitlement. Many male debaters are quick to assume they’ve won the ballot over fem debaters. It isn’t just the kids in debate though, many masc debate coaches are guilty of thinking they are God’s messengers of debate meant to mansplain and attain whatever their prodigies want. As a fem debater, this dude-bro entitlement and solidarity can make it easy to feel locked out of spaces, and I think generally the community has an issue with inclusivity. Unless you get a bid or have enough money to access masc debater’s friendships, it is easy to feel disregarded at camps and at national tournaments. 

Gaining masc respect shouldn't come at the expense of emptying our pockets or feeding your egos, instead we should urge masc debaters to respect fem people regardless of the way we look, our competitive success, or our social status! To recognize fem debaters are people, not foreign sleeper agents. The sexist underpinnings of interactions between masc and fem debaters, prep groups, and the community make it uniquely hard for women of lower socioeconomic status and oftentimes women of color to engage with debate and feel included. To that end, fem and masc debaters alike shouldn’t need to empty their pockets to access generic backfiles, to win generic rounds, with generic arguments––but that's a separate article. 

This was not intended to be a rant; instead, I beseech you to make a change once again. As a masc debater, evaluate your own orientation towards winning/losing against a fem-debater, think about the jokes you make, (especially if you're a senior debater) be conscientious of your interactions with young girls, hype women up! If you're a fem debater, don't diminish your achievements through self-deprecation, encourage your fem teammates and even random girls at tournaments. And if you're a part of the debate community at all, call out jokes when you see them made, keep harmful rhetoric out of the space, and educate people.

I love being a girl. I love being in debate. I love yapping. I love being pretty. None of this will change no matter how fem bodies are viewed, treated, or talked about. I have worked with masc debaters, coaches, etc. I love men! But my little sister, Julie Hant, is now a part of our community, meaning these issues could not only affect me but my family; we need to begin to address, advocate against, and prevent the issues women in debate face. Being pretty shouldn’t be a barrier to respect or safety. We should be able to trust our community with our sisters, friends, novices, and students. Fem debaters deserve your respect, consideration, effort, encouragement and so much more, and it is time you start giving it to them.